We’ve seen a few Apple retail stores successfully unionized, but the Cupertino firm has fought it every step of the way. Now comes a report that sheds some light on how the company has pushed back against the unionization efforts.
The New York Times has published a new report that sheds light on how Apple, Starbucks, REI, and Trader Joe’s have fought unionization efforts.
The publication spoke with several former Apple Store employees that all said they were reprimanded for supporting unionization efforts. Former employees claim they were disciplined for reasons like not clocking in on time, which eventually led to their firings.
Former Kansas City, Missouri Apple Store employee Gemma Wyatt, says that she was reprimanded in 2022 for “clocking in late a few times” over the course of several weeks. Then when Wyatt “missed a store meeting because she was sick but failed to notify managers soon enough,” she was fired in early 2023.
She says that she was at least the fifth store employee to be fired since the previous fall, and that, “It took us time to realize they weren’t firing us just because of time and attendance”.
Wyatt is part of the group of former Apple Store employees from that store that filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in March of this year. The complaint was filed by the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union.
Another former employee, D’lite Xiong, was apparently promoted and praised for doing good work with the company but was suddenly fired in October of last year. Xiong believes Apple “discovered their role in union organizing after they sought to enlist co-workers”.
Apple denied these claims in a statement to The New York Times. The company said, “We strongly deny these claims and look forward to providing the full set of facts to the NLRB”.